West Springfield Route 5 improvements ahead of schedule

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Although original plans did not call for the $3.6 million Route 5 improvement project to be completed until spring, most of it will be done by the end of this calendar year, according to an official with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which is overseeing and funding the work.

Albert R. Stegemann, director of its District 2 office in Northampton, said Tuesday, “It is pretty much win-win right now.”

The project is also within budget, he said.

Stegemann made his comment from the parking lot of Table & Vine on Route 5, which is also known as Riverdale Street, during a tour-progress report of the work with state Sen. James R. Welch, D-West Springfield, and state Rep. Michael J. Finn, D-West Springfield.

Welch and Finn agreed the project has gone smoothly, something that Stegemann attributes to the fact that construction takes place from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., when the highway is cut from four lanes to two.

Northeast Construction of Ludlow is doing the project, which calls for replacing the aging, 1930s-era cement surface of Route 5 with asphalt, building sidewalks and improving traffic signals. Sidewalks currently are very limited.

Work is taking place on .67-acres of the highway from Monterey Drive near the Rave cinema complex and the Riverdale Shops to just north of the Interstate 91 bypass. The purpose of the project is to relieve traffic congestion and improve pedestrian safety.

“This is an area that gets an awful lot of traffic and needed signal improvements,” Welch said.

Eighty percent of the money for the work is coming from the Federal Highway Administration and the rest from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

“I think it is great for the town,” Finn said, adding that it is a bonus that the state is paying for the project.